3

Q— 2

would be longer and more costly. And the true cause of the infrequeney of vessels to that Coast generally, is that of its scanty population and small consumption, that their district has been at all neglected is without a shadow of foundation. On the contrary it has been fully cared for, and had the largest proportion of public money, because of its being the newest and weakest of all. And it would therefore in the event of a separation, be all the more helpless because burdened with a debt for money which it could not have borrowed of itself and would now hastily turn into a hindrance in place of a source of progress. 4th. Because the splitting of the Province into districts, each having its separate and independent Government, in place of being united under one Council of Representatives, with municipal institutions for the local affairs of each district, as at present, would be adverse to progress. The Clutha district, for instance, with its inland navigation and noble basin of rich and accessible land, including gold as on the Mataura, or what is more to the purpose, its coal, the most massive and economically workable for shipment in the Province, might, if wished for, present a fas more feasible claim, but then it would cease to be a help to its weaker neighbour on the South, where the increase by lambings, the staple of the Province, as yet only reaches the average of 30 per cent (as jointly certified by the Chief Inspectors) whilst that of the Clutha and onward, to the latitude of Dunedin averages 80 per cent, and north of Dunedin above 80. On all these grounds your Petitioner craves that the Legislature of Otago be heard in the matter in such form as to your Honorable House may seem fit. And your Petitioner shall ever pray. W. CARGILL, Superintendent of Otago. Auckland, April, 1858.